[When Allie Reimold boarded Flight 2223 in Houston a week ago, she didn’t expect to see him. It had been four years since they’d last visited in person. And eight years, almost exactly, since the budding scientist had given a commercial airline pilot a gift that would link the two for life.
Back then, United Airlines Capt. David Whitson had been facing a devastating diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia. Healthy blood could bring the husband and father back from the brink. But even his brother’s didn’t match closely enough.
That’s when Allie, who years earlier had opted into a bone marrow registry, got the call: Would she help save a dying stranger? Since then, Allie and David had met in person. They’d linked up on social media. And in gratitude for her priceless gift, David had added Allie to his United Airlines travel benefits so she “travels like my children or my family do,” the pilot told CNN.
That’s how David, who’d just piloted a flight from Dallas to Houston, got the ping: Allie was also in Houston, about to board outbound Flight 2223. But it was due to take off in 40 minutes. And David was on the other side of the airport.
He reached out to the jet’s captain and dashed to the gate.
When David went from incredibly healthy to being on a ventilator at age 44, his family thought they’d lost him. He rushed to an emergency room in August 2016, complaining of a fever, pain on the left side of his body, and a swelling lymph node. A CT scan and tests revealed a grim diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia. His chances of survival were slim, especially given the genetic mutation in his cancer.
If he found the right match, David’s cancerous blood could be replaced, and he could return to health. But the search for a donor was long and arduous. In the US, stem cell recipients typically have to wait at least a year before they can meet their donors, according to the National Marrow Donor Program.
Eight months later, when David was receiving chemotherapy, a doctor at the Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas injected Allie’s bone marrow stem cells into his arm, changing his Type B-positive blood to Type O-negative. The treatment was successful, David said.
David eventually recovered, returning to work as a United Airlines pilot. Allie kept up her studies, focusing on public health and cancer prevention. Over time, the pair caught up, exchanging messages on their anniversaries, until one year Allie donated stem cells to another recipient. Her journey was already remarkable, as was her life-changing connection to David.
It had been 18 months since their last meet-up, so David decided to surprise Allie at an airport where they both happened to be. Boarding began, and Allie took her seat. Then, the aircraft’s PA system began to crackle: David had arrived.
For the next several years, they kept in touch, often communicating through social media and texting, especially after their reunions. For David, their friendship gave him a second chance at life, while Allie was glad to have saved a stranger and found a close friend in David.
On Allie’s first anniversary as a bone marrow donor, she attended a dinner honoring transplant patients, and it sparked a sense of purpose within her. As for David, when Allie first joined the National Marrow Donor Program as an 18-year-old college student, his heart began racing, and tears rolled down his eyes.
When their impromptu reunion aboard Flight 2223 took place, David hugged Allie tightly and expressed his heartfelt gratitude, reiterating what a hero she was to him. As their stories became one, it is clear that miracles do exist.
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